RESEARCH AWARD: Innovations for Successful Societies receives grant to study anti-corruption efforts

By the Office of Communications on Feb. 17, 2016, 1 p.m.

The Innovations for Successful Societies research program, led by Jennifer Widner, a professor of politics and international affairs, has received one of eight grants awarded by the British Academy to explore policies and interventions in developing countries that have successfully reduced corruption and its negative impact on people's lives. The £4 million ($5.7 million) anti-corruption initiative is underwritten by the United Kingdom's Department for International Development.

Jennifer Widner, a professor of politics and international affairs, has immersed herself and her students in African life through innovative programs that gather and analyze crucial information about building and operating institutions. Through these projects -- and in her teaching and scholarship -- Widner strives to see Africa up close, through the eyes of its own people.

Tandem classroom-online course aims to create international network of 'builders' .

This spring, Jennifer Widner, professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, introduced an online version of her course "Making Government Work in Hard Places." Offered alongside Widner's traditional graduate-level course with 19 enrolled students, the nine-week online course reached more than 2,000 learners from around the world.

Princeton senior Siddiqui awarded Gates Cambridge Scholarship .

Shaffin Siddiqui has been awarded a Gates Cambridge Scholarship to pursue postgraduate study at the University of Cambridge.

From New Jersey schools to Nigerian markets, Paluck examines social dynamics .

Elizabeth Paluck, an assistant professor of psychology and public affairs, is focusing on two disparate settings as the latest sites of her research in exploring how peoples' actions are affected by what they sense about the beliefs of those around them.

Three seniors win Labouisse Prize for international civic engagement projects .

Princeton University seniors Lavinia Liang, Katie Tyler and Erika Ward have been awarded the Henry Richardson Labouisse ’26 Prize to pursue international civic engagement projects for one year following graduation.

Initiatives aim to boost global literacy .

"Global awareness should be 'built into the DNA of Princeton,'" said President Tilghman at this year’s Opening Exercises, quoting a University trustee in her address to students. With recent high-level faculty appointments in international affairs and comparative politics and new globally focused courses and research projects, this "DNA" is being expressed in unprecedented ways at Princeton.

Alumni award winners stress value of public service .

Princeton's top alumni award winners, former U.S. Sen. Paul Sarbanes and Africare President Julius Coles, emphasized the need for people to engage in public service, from the local to the global level, in their Alumni Day addresses Saturday, Feb. 24. Sarbanes and Coles also joined Princeton scholars in a panel discussion exploring the global response to the genocide and humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan. The panel featured unscheduled comments from former U.S. Senate majority leader and Princeton alumnus Bill Frist, who was in Darfur just days earlier.